When I first read this unreadable (from an understanding standpoint) essay from Derrida I really did not take anything away from it. I tried to make some connections between his writing and the quotes from Barthes about the arbitrary – ness of language as well as trying to connect it to Macherey and his topic of looking at what is not present in words in order to study what is present. While these may not have been great connections, they were the best I could do when it comes to the difference between difference and differance. However, after we further delved into the topic in class, I feel that I may have a little better grasp on the topic, or at least some other connections can be drawn now.
One of these connections comes from Derrida’s concept of the trace; by the trace he means: “– the filling in of missing things based on what we’ve seen or heard before;” this sounds familiar? It should because it is basically the same idea as BArthes’ concept of tmesis. Barthes was referring to the gaps which we are able to fill in in words because we have heard it so many times that it sounds natural to fill in. we used the example ‘abso- f-ing-lutely’, we are able to fill in the gap because we know what falls into its place.
The other topic from clas which really caught my attention was Derrida’s quote “There never has been and never will be a unique word, a master name.” (140) what he means by this is that every words can be drawn back to any other word. All words end up connecting to each other through definitions and explanations. This concept also applies to advertisements, tv shows and movies; when we watch a movie, it happens quite often that we are able to predict the ending or outcome of a situation because we have seen so many other instances with the same predictable outcome.
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2 comments:
These are good connections, especially since Derrida is difficult to grasp. You have become a very strong critical thinking this past semester so keep up with making strong connections. You mentioned how there will never be a master word for anything - think all the way back to our first theorist DeSauussure and his views on language. It's definitely work reviewing all of our material starting now for the final since it is cumulative (with an emphasis on the last few theorists covered). As you review it'll be worth finding those stronger connections. :)
also, really think about how what he says relates to the rest of culture? :)
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